As the cover picture reveals, there is some spookiness radiating from these synthesizer laden rhythms. Perfect for a late night drive or setting the mood for shadow people darting through your peripheral vision. There is an oscillation from track to track of an ambient plateau of majestic vistas to falling into the smoldering forge of beat creation. These feelings of security and uneasiness provide diversity, keeping This Pit In My Stomach intriguing for a multitude of listens.

Bikini Barista's - This Pit In My Stomach was just released in the middle of this month. I am not sure how many of these cassettes were made, but I am sure this cassette will rotate frequently in your tape player! Currently you can have one shipped straight to your mailbox for five dollars total. Looking forward to where this sound will go for future releases.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Going to skip the usual posting intro/buildup and focus straight away on the song "Perooh" from Moonsicles new release Creeper. This track really caught my attention on the first listen. Incredibly cool retro beat and bass, championing the vibe. The guitar riffs are clean and sweet, sparse at times, truly a perfect amount. Wrapping this song up is the synthesizer, the fabric of the track. Emitting sound threads connecting distant and future points of time. All musicians together creating one of the best tracks I have heard in a few years.

Going back to the start of Creeper is really returning to the beginning. This album builds with slowly dripping water to only a half dose of Codeine. Rambling guitar and ceremonial court drums, guided by snakey synthesizer, ooze from the speakers. This gives way to the mysterious questions placed on early eighties New Age music with the song "Crystal Spy". For me as a listener, everything falling in order for "Perooh". After this, "Trembling Grub" shifts back to creep on a time released capsule of the first song "Slow Owl". At this point the music has a vast sounding feel of open expanses of the frontier west. This reminds me a little of the great album "Train Songs" by Two Dollar Guitar. The last track ends with a native beat driven Earth departure titled "Sheyenne". Laid back, diverse, and extremely well crafted, Moonsicles reaches deep with this album, sustaining significance for future listens.

Moonsicles is composed of four musicians, all with hefty experience. Each band member with a pedigree of projects to their names. Creeper is a release of only 100 compact discs, each with individually hand painted covers. A beautiful package of art and sound i am sure will deplete in availability quickly. Moonsicles knows how to play and get music to those who are interested. This is why you can purchase Creeper straight from the band in Austin, Texas.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Prepare yourself for a sound journey traveling in Euclidean space. Sound on the number line is far removed from this transit of music. Tallesen's release "Stills Lit Through" envelopes the listener with a barrage of quiet ambient moments relinquishing themselves to a symphonic beat driven opus. There is a tone throughout this album consistent of a futuristic calliope. The modern version of this ancient steam organ, has been precisely calibrated to emit the softest sounding notes. This creates a dreamlike journey for your astral projection. The beats and rhythm tether the listener, providing a pathway back to the security of a more familiar measure.

As this sound exploration progresses, there is a definite shift to trance like emissions of rhythmic deprivation. Almost as if underwater, a heavy thickness rolls in, reversing the journey out of body to an inward exploration of the mortal coil. The album finishes with a tranquil state of being completely welcomed after traveling so far into this innovative world of sound.

Caymen Johnson or "Tallesen" has created a musical piece offering complete depth and diversity. Playing this quietly or loudly produces separate unique experiences. The fidelity of the cd I used for these words of reflection is superb. The Software label has provided both cd or lp format for this release and I just noticed this is number 50 in the catalog. The cd version looks like it has four bonus tracks not on the lp. You probably will get those in a download upon purchase of the vinyl. I am sure Software has this beyond worked out, making sure everyone is taken care of. Music on Software always merits investigation.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Connecting early synthesizer forays to the unknown future of sound, Phillip K. Glass Dick's sound is originative. Like the writings of the science fiction author with the same name (minus the glass), both have created a vision of possible ubiquitous realty in a subsequent time.

Listening to different tracks on this cassette, i feel comfortable with the residence of the songs. There exist a groove taking a slow ride through the 80's and moving to distant points in time. Raining samples of post modern noise drip outside creating mood for contemplation and then empty thought. This cruise of upbeat, chill and futuristic is perfectly timed. The diversity of every track helps maintain maximum interest, spanning the entire roll of the spools forward and back. It is hard to pin down any similarities to existing music, making this truly a unique listen. The closest i could denote anything to is the first song on side two, "(My Time SPent With) Prisoners". This song had a strange exuding tone to the mood of Talking Heads "Listening Wind" off the Remain In Light lp.

PKGD has created something really nice on this release titled Gift of Love = Homies. Amazingly inventive, this release sits on the periphery, energizing the enjoyment of listening. The quality of the artist, sound, packaging and presentation is of the highest standard, as always from Monofonus Press. The label proliferates the best in music and art. Not sure how many tapes were made, but cassettes are available now from the label here. They also have a pretty nice summer batch deal including Gift of Love = Homies here.

There are samples out there, not on the label site though. I could pull
them from other distributors but do not want to use them that way. Found
this on Soundcloud. Not from this cassette but parts of it are close in mood and feel.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Cassettes of the past are remembered with these thoughts. So much emphasis on the newest releases, taking a moment to go back a few years. Lee Nobles label No Kings has been a favored label for years. Everything No Kings puts out is pure quality and this results with the entire catalog being sold out from the label. So it does not matter about being available or not for thoughts on any No Kings releases. I selected #35 from the shelf, Secret Birds - In Hex.

Ranging from drifting ambient wash to mind-expanding jams, In Hex has the diversity to be extremely enjoyable. Side one invites the listener in with the calming sounds of "Century Waves". Now on a comfortable raft from the opening, the start of "In Hexagon" pushes a meditative rhythm and cascade of guitars and synthesizer. Similar to a long track from the band Stag Hare.

The middle of this cassette reveals something unusual and rarely heard by contemporary listening culture. "Refractions From The Skull Prism" is an eavesdrop into a tribal ceremony for obscure alien landing fields in the land down under. Almost under breath field recordings mixed with rhythmic beats around a sacred blaze.

After the fire has relinquished itself to embers "A Serpent With Corners" offers another comfortable respite until the epic "Zen Pyramid" begins. This is the longest track on the cassette, building peacefully from the start. Soon entering orbit for planetary departure.

This cassette seems to be unavailable for purchase from the regular places to look. Secret Birds bandcamp page has it available for listening as well as a few remaining earlier recordings still for sale. Very much worth a listen.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

This is an epic journey in galactic audio travel. From field like recordings from other planets, to stoic organ and piano accompanied space travel, this listening experience is not just background noise. This is a fantastic auditory perception for traveling without seeing. There are planets explored with hearing and not sight. Bent Von Bent operates this interplanetary cassette junket. His instructions are only, listen closely because there is no light to see.

- listener #75.003 written passage from side one -
"After landing on a water planet, our heads were just high enough to see over a terrestrial dune. There next to a foreign sea is a mysterious vessel. Sitting out of the water and tilted to one side, melodies from even farther away spill forth from the ships hull. The music invites us over the embankment, and then turns ominous causing cover to be taken again. We listen further waiting to build courage and venture fourth."

The first track on side two "Bunker Symfonie IX: Opmars" is a mammoth example of complete submergence in another world. An atmospheric sound scape so foreign, listeners will begin understand the magnitude of this composition. Bent Von Bent has created something really exceptional.

This is release number seven for the Belgium label Hare Akedod. This is
also my first cassette possessed from Hare Akedod. Previous releases
were on the radar, but not purchased in time. For Ogon Batto, I secured
this quickly from Tomentosa. They are now sold out, but the cassette is
still available from the Hare Akedod's Bandcamp site.